Dance Festival of India, September 20th at Carnegie Hall

Classical Indian dance comes to New York City to honor 60 years of independence for the world's largest democracy.

The most comprehensive program of Indian classical dance ever presented in the United States will take place during the Dance Festival of India 2008 in New York this September 17th through 27th. The roster of 74 dancers and musicians are traveling to the event from Kerala, Manipur, New Delhi, and Tamil Nadu, India. Performances will include the Bharatanatyam, Kalaripayattu, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, and Odissi, representing each of the six distinct types of Indian dance.

A six-part concert at Carnegie Hall on September 20, 2008 will be presented as America's principle event to honor India during her 60th year celebration of independence. During the artist's ten-day stay, community outreach performances are also scheduled for area venues, including Central Park and Battery Park. The internationally recognized troupes will conduct dance workshops and make media appearances to publicly display and discuss Indian Classical dance, as well.

The six dance groups participating will come at the invitation of the lead sponsor, The ARCH, Inc., a nonprofit organization with the primary mission of renewing community through multicultural creativity. ARCH is joined in leadership by other nonprofit organizations, major corporations, city and state agencies in supporting this undertaking as a means to use the cultural medium of Indian classical dance, music, and visual arts to strengthen the cultural and goodwill bridge between India and the United States, and to recognize the longevity and endurance of the relationship. It is also a means for all to express appreciation to the many Indo-Americans who contribute so much to America.

To further demonstrate how arts and culture can be a linkage for understanding between peoples, Dance Festival of India has commissioned New York-based contemporary artist Pratima Naithani to create by hand mixed media artworks on paper, blending India's cultural past with it's present. All are transformations using traditional techniques to alter the original context of past images to reinterpret and reconstruct a minimalist narrative representation of India to western audiences which, at the same time, creates a certain nostalgia in her audiences in the East, a metaphorical conversation that makes her one of the more emotionally charged artists among the Indian Diaspora.

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